Habitat Soundscaping - a Fresh Take on Collaboration

Habitat Soundscaping – unless you follow the collaboration space very closely, I’m virtually certain you’ve never heard that phrase before, and from there even more certain you have no idea what it means. As an analyst, I don’t often write about specific vendors, and I won’t be this time either. In this particular case, the vendor is Plantronics – very well-known for headsets – but that’s not the focus as all. My objective gaze is lasered in on their new offering, and how it represents a new and different way of looking at the challenges businesses face in trying to improve workplace productivity, and along with that, how workers can collaborate more effectively.

There’s a lot to explore here, but it’s worth breaking down, as it will help decision-makers get a more holistic view about the range of factors impacting collaboration. The business value of collaboration is only going to increase, and with so much change going on around digital transformation, IT in particular cannot be strategic with a legacy mindset.

Today, there are more factors to consider that enable collaboration and create new business value. Most will be familiar, but some will surprise you, and this series focuses on one of them. Since it is so different from what you already know, I’m going to cover the basics of Habitat Soundscaping over the next two posts. Following that, I’ll build on this understanding by presenting specific ways in which it brings new forms of collaboration value to the business.

What’s in a name?

I’m going to start here with the basics, and there’s nothing more basic than the name, especially one that doesn’t jump out as being related to collaboration. The meaning of the name may not be obvious, but there are some clues. “Habitat” suggests an environment, and while you wouldn’t normally associate that with your workplace, many people spend inordinate amounts of time there, making it a habitat of sorts for them. More importantly, “habitat” is used to describe where life forms other than humans live, namely in nature – the relevance of which will become clearer shortly.

The term “Soundscaping” also provides some clues, but the connection to collaboration may not be all that clear. Audio should come to mind, and that’s definitely part of the story, as Plantronics believes that the sounds around us have a lot to do with workplace productivity. Another important clue is the panoramic connotation of “soundscapes”. As mentioned above, part of thinking differently involves taking a holistic view, and when it comes to collaboration, decision-makers must consider factors that make it easier for workers to interact in a shared environment.

When IT invests in collaboration technology such as PCs, phone systems or video conferencing, these are generally viewed as point solutions, with little regard for the workspaces where they’re going to be used. Unless IT is working with office design consultants, there won’t be much thought given to the broader soundscapes that are created by these endpoints. Much like we do landscaping to give the spaces around our home an overall look and feel, soundscaping is about taking a holistic view of the overall audio environment and how it can be optimized for workplace performance.

This is a gap in the collaboration value chain that Plantronics believes has been either overlooked or misunderstood. Since there is no precedent for this in the collaboration space, Plantronics was free to call it whatever most made sense, and hopefully once the Habitat Soundscaping concept catches on, the market will follow along without difficulty. Whether or not you think this is good name for a new collaboration offering, keep in mind there are plenty of names for companies and products whose meaning was baffling at first, but today nobody thinks twice about it – Google, Skype, Vonage, just to name a few.

What is Habitat Soundscaping?

I’m being deliberate in breaking down the name, because once its meaning becomes clearer, the connection – and relevance – to collaboration becomes easier to understand. In fact, my thinking is that as you connect these ideas, the solution will be self-evident, and as I present the details, you’ll have already anticipated what’s coming. No doubt Plantronics would be happy to hear that, but I’m much more interested in providing new ways to think about collaboration and for you to connect ideas you hadn’t considered previously.

The true value of my posts here is getting decision-makers to look beyond the technology that’s in front of them, and to consider the spaces around where the solutions will reside. Making good technology decisions is essential, but humans have to be engaged to create an impact, and that’s where the environment can be so important.

Now it’s time for the description of Habitat Soundscaping to enter the picture, but once again, I’ll leave the central question unanswered until my next post. Not only do I want you to keep reading my posts, but this is a good time to consider what you think Habitat Soundscaping is; and having done that, surely the answer will be more rewarding than just getting it right off the top.

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